After his mailbox stand was stolen from in front of his Nobleboro home at around 5 p.m. on Dec. 23, Bob Nelson was left wondering why and who would commit such a brazen crime.
“Why not wait until the middle of the night?” Nelson said. He and his family were sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner in their dining room, which has a view of the mailbox through a large picture window, when it was stolen.
“We were all looking right out the window at them, and I’m sure they were looking back at us,” Nelson said.
Only Nelson’s granddaughter actually saw the vehicle, which she said was a large pickup truck, and Nelson became aware of the theft when a neighbor knocked on his door carrying his mailbox later that evening.
The neighbor found the box about 200 yards down the road from Nelson’s home at 215 E. Neck Rd., but Nelson’s mailbox stand was nowhere to be found.
“It’s pretty unique,” Nelson said. He built the stand, which he described as looking like a boat stand, with his father 25 years ago.
Nelson filed reports with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and United State Postal Service Investigative Service. He is currently asking neighbors for any information they might have about the incident and has given a description of the stand to at least one local scrap yard, Nelson said.
Anyone with information about the mailbox stand or the theft is encouraged to contact the LCSO at 832-6576, or call Bob Nelson at 563-3089.
“The stand is important to me,” Nelson wrote in an email to the Lincoln County News. “Please return it or advise me where I may find it and no charges will be filed – no questions asked.”
For now, Nelson has no immediate plans to replace the mailbox.
“For the first time in 72 years, I’m getting my mail in a P.O. Box,” Nelson said. However, this spring, Nelson said he might get his backhoe out. “You may see the mother of all mailbox stands in front of my house.”
